News from the heartland….. Democrats are, as expected, exploiting Las Vegas to push their anti-Second Amendment agenda. Donald Trump has an impressive record in at least two really important areas: the judiciary and regulations. That’s great news for America. Plus our Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason.” —Benjamin Franklin (1735)

The nation’s worst shooting massacre happened Sunday night in Las Vegas, where 59 people attending a country music concert were murdered and more than 500 wounded. Jason Aldean was performing when the assailant opened fire from his 32nd floor hotel room. This was a horrendous act of mass murder — what President Donald Trump correctly called “pure evil.” It’s a grim reminder that evil human beings will go to extreme measures to inflict pain and suffering on others.

As evil as this massacre was, gun controllers took to the microphone before any facts surrounding this atrocity were unveiled. Leftists immediately screamed about how their preferred policies would have prevented this tragedy without presenting any facts to back up their claim.

What follows is a litany of lies from many leftists using this tragedy to advance their agenda to strip Liberty from law-abiding citizens.

After trotting out a series of completely bogus statistics, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pontificated in a letter2 to House Speaker Paul Ryan, “Congress has a moral duty to address this horrific and heartbreaking epidemic. Charged with the solemn duty to protect and defend the American people, we must respond to these tragedies with courage, unity and decisive action.” By which she means to pass left-wing anti-gun legislation curtailing the Second Amendment.

Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy from Connecticut insisted, “This must stop. … It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren’t public policy responses to this epidemic.” He added, “The thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference. It’s time for Congress to get off its a— and do something.”

Connecticut’s other Democrat senator, Richard Blumenthal, added, “It has been barely a year since what was previously the largest mass shooting in American history — the deadly attack at Pulse nightclub. … In the interim, thousands more have been lost to the daily, ruthless toll of gun violence. Still, Congress refuses to act. I am more than frustrated. I am furious!”

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) argued, “The problem is that ‘enough’ was many, many years and many, many brutal deaths ago.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tweeted, “Thoughts & prayers are NOT enough. … We need to have the conversation about how to stop gun violence. We need it NOW.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) added, “How many lives must be lost before we act?”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) commented, “We suffer these horrific events repeatedly and do nothing to stop them. We must do better.”

“Enough is enough,” Rep. Mike Thompson tweeted. “Congress should come together and establish a Select Committee to end gun violence.” While they’re at it, maybe they could end world hunger and poverty.

Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and perennial leading advocate for gun control, opined that leaders should “resolve to stop mass shootings in America — and back up our words with actions.”

And of course, Hillary Clinton, the defeated presidential candidate who should be in jail instead of making public comments, urged the public to not politicize this mass murder — but then immediately politicized it. “Our grief isn’t enough,” she lectured. “We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.” In other words, defenders of the Second Amendment must put our politics aside to follow her politics.

Clinton also launched into factually challenged nonsense: “The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get.”

Which brings us to several facts that these cynical exploiters conveniently leave out.

It is true that the NRA has been pushing for years to have Congress allow “silencers” to be less regulated. But there is a huge misconception3 about these tools that Clinton and many others exploit. A “silencer” is more accurately called a suppressor. It reduces the loudness and flash of a firearm but it does not completely silence it. In other words, a silencer makes a gun slightly less loud (though it’s still roughly the decibel level of a jackhammer), and it was invented to protect hearing for those who regularly practice shooting. It does not, as Hollywood imagines, allow someone to fire a weapon that cannot be heard by others in the next room.

Another consideration is whether the killer used a fully automatic weapon to carry out this attack on innocent people as early reports speculated. It’s more likely that the killer used a “bump fire” stock attachment that allows a semiautomatic rifle to simulate automatic fire. If that’s the case, Democrats will go after such accessories and Republicans will have a difficult time playing defense.

Either way, the truth is, as Charles C.W. Cooke points out4, “He had so many weapons that it’ll be a while before we know which ones he chose.”

Nevertheless, the media is quick to blame Republicans for failing to renew the Clinton administration’s 1994 “assault weapons” ban. That ban applied to semiautomatic rifles, not fully automatic ones.

Fully automatic weapons already have the severest restrictions5 of any firearm. It is illegal to sell or buy a new one. Fully automatic weapons that were made and owned before 1986 are still in circulation but they are extremely expensive, are very difficult to acquire and have very strict rules that come with them. In order to own a fully automatic weapon, a $200 tax must be paid along with a lengthy application form to the ATF. If, after a lengthy background check, someone is approved to own a fully automatic weapon, then the ATF enters that individual’s information into a registry and the local law enforcement within that jurisdiction is notified. Fully automatic weapons are also almost never used in homicides — just three times since 1934, and two of those were by police.

The Democrat talking points about gun control are completely blown out of the water with these facts, but the Leftmedia come to their aid.

Yet, as they do with every heinous shooting, Democrats continue to use the blood of innocents6 to push for more restrictions and even to completely outlaw firearm ownership. They call for more controls despite the fact that there are already 20,000 laws on the books to restrict firearm use. Chicago, a city leftists love to tout as an example of why we need more firearm regulations, already has the most stringent gun laws to go with the highest crime rate of any city in the U.S.

Moreover, a gun is an object, a tool. Monstrous murder sprees using those tools are committed only by evil or mentally deranged people. The argument from the Left goes something like this: “Well, if there were no guns, then evil people could not inflict such great harm.” Wrong! Evil people will use any means to inflict harm; knives, baseball bats, explosives, vehicles (as when 84 people were slaughtered7 in Nice, France) and many other objects could be used. Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin perhaps said it best: “You can’t regulate evil.”

We also need to be reminded of the reason that our Founding Fathers were so adamant about protecting We the People from government encroachment on the natural right to defend oneself with a firearm. Our right to keep and bear arms is the greatest deterrent to a tyrannical government that would want to enslave its people. Without gun ownership, there is no defense of Liberty. That doesn’t change even in the face of the horrific violence in Las Vegas.

IN BRIEF

Trump Consistently Impressive on Judicial Nominations8

President Donald Trump’s focus on the judicial system did not end with his nomination9 and the subsequent confirmation10 of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. During his campaign, Trump promised11 to nominate “constitutional conservatives” to the courts, and he has been consistent in fulfilling that pledge. On Thursday, the White House announced another batch of judicial nominees — its eighth batch so far.

Trump has now made 18 nominations to the appellate courts, 29 to district courts and three to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The White House has been aided in its vetting of nominees by the Federalist Society, described by The Wall Street Journal as “a national clearinghouse for conservative legal talent.”

The bad news is that the Senate has thus far only managed to confirm four nominees to the appellate courts, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have pulled out every delay tactic in the book to slow down the confirmation process. Schumer is playing the delay game, attempting to limit the number of judges confirmed before the 2018 election with the hopes of Democrats regaining majority control of the Senate.

As the Supreme Court swings back into action this week, there are rumors that Justice Anthony Kennedy, age 81, could retire after this current term. Kennedy has famously been known as the court’s “swing” member for having a history of sided with both conservative and liberal members on a range of high-profile cases. If Kennedy were to retire, Trump is sure to continue his form and nominate a solidly constitutional conservative justice. As with Gorsuch, Democrats are sure to throw everything they have to stop it.

Speaking of the Supreme Court, the justices will be taking up several important cases this term, including the constitutional limits on partisan gerrymandering. This is a case where all eyes will be on Justice Kennedy, as it seems that he will be the deciding vote. The court’s ruling on this decision has the potential to reshape the U.S. political landscape.

Overall, although slowed by stubborn opposition from Senate Democrats, Trump has proven that he is solidly committed to filling court openings across the nation with constitutionally committed judges. This is a win for America and our Constitution.

Trump’s Record Pace on Deregulation12

Donald Trump is on a record pace. If he continues at this rate he will surpass the great deregulator himself, Ronald Reagan. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), Trump has issued 58% fewer regulations than did Barack Obama, and he has cut down the Federal Register by 32%. Trump’s commitment to cut two regulations for every new one has saved Americans $560 million. CEI Vice President Clyde Wayne Crews said, “It took a few years for Ronald Reagan to achieve his ultimate, one-third reduction in Federal Register pages following Jimmy Carter’s then-record Federal Register. So by this metric, Trump is moving much faster.” Trump also has presented the lowest number of big rules for a first-year president since George H. W. Bush.

Still, Trump is facing a mammoth regulatory state that ballooned under eight years of Obama. In 2016 alone, the Obama administration issued more than 2,600 new rules, including 54 major regulations, costing Americans $14.7 billion annually. The Heritage Foundation estimates that the overall cost of regulations created by Obama costs the country $112 billion annually. In other words, Trump still has a long way to go.

In that vein, Energy Secretary Rick Perry is stepping to the plate. Environmental regulations are some of the most onerous of them all, and Obama particularly enjoyed “saving the planet” by tightening the screws on all Americans. Perry is acting to mitigate the impact upon the energy sector. Last Friday, Perry announced plans to provide loans helping two nuclear power plants proceed with construction, as well as a move to redefine how coal and nuclear plants are compensated for the electricity they produce. Perry stated, “I believe the future of nuclear energy in the United States is bright and I look forward to expanding American leadership in innovative nuclear technologies.” He also said that the nuclear plant construction would provide 6,000 construction jobs as well as 800 permanent plant jobs. Not to mention cheaper electricity for consumers.

Perry’s announcement was welcomed by Matt Crozat of the Nuclear Energy Institute, who said, “What’s most significant about this is that we’ve been working on these issues for the better part of the last three-plus years … and what the secretary has done is said, ‘Enough talk, we need to actually act.’ And so what this is going to do is drive to some conclusion what a policy action is going to be.”

Perry is concerned with protecting “the American people from the threat of energy outages that could result from the loss of traditional base-load capacity.” Over-regulation doesn’t merely cost Americans more money, it threatens their standard of living and even their livelihood.

Policy: Here’s the truth about gun control and crime (The Daily Signal25)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report26.Don’t Miss Patriot Humor

Check out Taking a Stand?27.

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MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Failed GOP Leadership29 — The party of Lincoln and Reagan is at serious risk of losing its majorities in both houses of Congress in 2018. Gender Identity: Why All the Confusion?30 — Today we are told that male and female are one and the same. Unfortunately, women will pay an especially high price.

Tony Perkins: “The government can’t make us safer until it recognizes that the problem isn’t the instruments of violence but the culture of it. The heart of the matter, as Dr. Ben Carson once said, is the matter of the heart. Gun control is merely dealing with the symptom. What about the real problem — the fact that we’ve gotten to a point in our ‘civil’ society where people are seen as disposable? What has brought our country to a place where we no longer value human beings created in the image of God? A God, I might add, that some Americans are punished for even invoking. Maybe it’s time we stepped back, as a nation, and considered what’s happened since we removed the Judeo-Christian foundation that anchored this country from its cradle. That knowledge is what teaches us that human beings are intrinsically valuable because they carry the image of God. Without it, people’s understanding of the worth of life is dramatically reduced, especially when it’s replaced with a view that human beings are the product of chance.”

SHORT CUTS

Upright: “Hundreds of our fellow citizens are now mourning the sudden loss of a loved one — a parent, a child, a brother or sister. We cannot fathom their pain. We cannot imagine their loss. To the families of the victims: We are praying for you and we are here for you, and we ask God to help see you through this very dark period.” —Donald Trump

Non Compos Mentis: “[Republican leaders] should be praying for God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country.” —Jimmy Kimmel

Braying Jenny: “If they wouldn’t do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing. I’m actually not even sympathetic [because] country music fans often are Republican gun toters.” —CBS legal executive Hayley Geftman-Gold

Alpha Jackass: “Durn tootin’, great shootin’. Cool dude sertin’ he’s 2nd Mendment rahts. Hell yeah! Every country has its psychopaths. In US they have guns.” —Richard Dawkins

Race bait: “It’s the white supremacist patriarchy, stupid. … White people and men are told that they are entitled to everything. This is what happens when they don’t get what they want.” —Drexel University professor George Ciccariello

Demo-gogues: “It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren’t public policy responses to this epidemic. There are, and the thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference. It’s time for Congress to get off its a— and do something.” —Sen. Chris Murphy

Village Idiots: “Prayers are important but @SpeakerRyan @realDonaldTrump blood is on the hands of those who have power to legislate.” —Lady Gaga